Maternal antidepressants are implicated in ADHD, but so is maternal depression

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The safety of antidepressants in pregnancy is controversial, partly because of profound methodological difficulties in separating the fetal effects of antidepressants from those related to maternal depression (confounding by indication). One central concern is the potential impact of these drugs on fetal brain development. Such effects may be subtle and possibly only detectable years after exposure, such as an increased susceptibility to (multifactorial) neurodevelopmental conditions.

Children and young people can have a wide range of life limiting conditions and may sometimes live with such conditions for many years. This guideline recommends that end of life care be managed as a long term process that begins at the time of diagnosis of a life limiting condition and entails planning for the future. Sometimes it may begin before the child’s birth. It is part of the overall care of the child or young person and runs in parallel with other active treatments for the underlying condition itself. Finally, it includes those aspects related to the care of the dying.

Children admitted to hospital with severe asthma attacks generally receive “very effective and efficient” treatment and care, but more attention must be given to asthma education and review at discharge to help prevent future attacks and readmission, says a national audit by the British Thoracic Society.

The society’s National Paediatric Asthma Audit, published on 29 November, reviewed data on more than 5500 children over the age of 1 admitted with severe asthma attacks to 153 UK hospitals in November 2015 and found that most aspects of discharge from hospital were less than optimal.

Everyday nursing requires the appropriate use of evidence and this website from Evidently Cochrane provides useful insights. The article about pressure ulcers illustrates why evidence is needed for everyday practice.

Evidence can be found from a variety of sources and with busy workloads and winter pressures coming, you may find it is hard to find time to search for reliable evidence.

Don’t worry – we can help you!

Your Library and Knowledge Service has skilled outreach specialists who can help you, either by running an evidence search or training you to do it effectively. So get ahead and get in touch with us if you are based at East Cheshire NHS Trust.

This document here reflects strategic objectives around workforce planning, health education and training and development. The mandate looks at how the healthcare workforce can be developed to improve care for patients through education and training.

A significant rise in the risk of speech and language disorders was found among children born to mothers prescribed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) during pregnancy, a study published in JAMA Psychiatry has found.

Introducing eggs or peanuts early into infants’ diet is associated with a lower risk of developing egg or peanut allergy, says a systematic review of the evidence published in JAMA.

The review found “moderate certainty” evidence that introducing eggs to the infant diet at 4 to 6 months was associated with reduced egg allergy and that introducing peanuts at 4 to 11 months was associated with reduced peanut allergy when compared with later introduction of these foods.

Using paracetamol to treat fever or pain is no more likely than ibuprofen to exacerbate asthma in children with mild persistent asthma, a randomised trial has shown (in the New England Journal of Medicine).

Observational data have previously linked paracetamol and asthma symptoms to decreased lung function, so some doctors have recommended avoiding the drug in children with asthma. But data from randomised trials have been limited.

The library currently has a free trial to the internurseand MAHcompletee-journal collections.

Internurse is the UK’s largest collection of peer-reviewed nursing content, and home of the British Journal of Nursing. Internurse covers primary and secondary care settings as well as the whole spectrum of specialist nursing practice including cardiology, neuroscience, mental health, palliative care and wound care.

Access the collection with your East Cheshire NHS Athens account: Login to Athens. Select ‘MAG Online Library’ from the list of resources.

Children at high risk for peanut allergy who are treated with early peanut exposure from infancy to age 5 remain at low risk even after avoiding eating peanuts for a year, shows a UK study that indicates long lasting benefit from early exposure.

Peanut allergy is a common and potentially life threatening food allergy. A study published last year found that sustained peanut consumption beginning in the first 11 months of life reduced the rate of peanut allergy at age 5

Children with disabilities who have an initial unsubstantiated referral for neglect are at increased risk of being maltreated subsequently, a research letter published in JAMA has warned.

Researchers analysed data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, which collects data on children reported to child protection services in the United States and Puerto Rico. A total of 12 610 children with disabilities and 476 566 without disabilities who had first time unsubstantiated referrals for neglect in 2008 were included in the study and followed up for four years.

All trust staff have access to a collection of over 200 online journals covering key medical and nursing titles. Our subscription provides full text access to articles published in these journals, giving access to published research and evidence which can support your workplace practice, CPD, research and educational activities.

The journal titles are linked into our healthcare databases, electronic journal lists and can be accessed from the library web pages when both on and offsite by using your Athens log in.

The intention is to promote the pack to all new starters with health and social care organisations commissioning or providing services for the people of Eastern Cheshire. Organisations include third sector partners and providers of social housing.

For the avoidance of doubt, the pack is not relevant to employees involved exclusively in commissioning or providing services outside Eastern Cheshire. This pack is to be made available with immediate effect to new recruits, either salaried or voluntary.

At the end of every third month, a member of the Caring Together team will send managers a link to a brief online survey for new recruits to complete. This will enable them to measure awareness of the pack and the extent to which it is achieving its aim of improving understanding of Caring Together. Consultees will have the option to remain anonymous as the purpose of the survey is not to test individuals’ knowledge or pay attention to people who don’t answer all the questions correctly!

While the principal aim of the survey is to ensure that new starters are introduced to Caring Together as soon as practicable, the pack can also be shared with colleagues more widely. Reference copies of the pack are also available in the Staff Library (Top Floor, New Alderley House).

Many thanks to all in anticipation of your support for this important initiative to promote understanding of – and engagement in – our transformation programme.

This online book collection contains well known and highly regarded titles from Oxford University Press covering medical specialties, nursing topics, and community work.

Titles includes the Oxford Textbook of Medicine, the Oxford Medical Handbooks and Oxford Specialist Handbooks, all in online formats.

The collection is available to all trust staff and students.

E books provide the convenience of being able to use them wherever you are working, onsite or off site. You can log in online here using your personal East Cheshire NHS Trust Athens account. More details can be found on the library e resources web page

Children who reduce their consumption of sugar sweetened drinks by just one serving a week see improvements in their high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels, a study published in the Journal of Nutrition has found.

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The US study used data from a multiethnic sample of 613 children aged 8 to 15 who were enrolled in a randomised double blind vitamin D supplementation trial. They self reported their intake of sugar sweetened beverages and had their fasting blood lipid concentrations measured at baseline.

Two thirds of the children were from low socioeconomic status households, almost half were overweight or obese, and 59% were from non-white or Caucasian ethnic groups. The researchers followed 380 of the children for 12 months.

A gene therapy trial has shown a small but notable health benefit in people with cystic fibrosis—proof of principle that, after a long wait, hopes of effective treatments for inherited diseases may one day be realised.

In a trial involving 136 cystic fibrosis patients aged over 12 who used nebulisers to inhale the correct gene wrapped in an envelope of fat, modest benefits were observed over a range of measurements when compared with patients inhaling a placebo. The main aim was to show that the treatment, given monthly for a year, would improve lung function measured by the volume of air the patients could expel in one second.

Banning smoking in public places has cut hospital admissions for childhood respiratory infections in England by 11 000 a year, new research has estimated.

Researchers from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands said that evidence has shown that smoke-free public environments will benefit children’s health but that the exact effect on respiratory tract infections is unclear.

Vision problems are rare in dyslexic children, and most have perfect eyesight, a large UK population based study has found.

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The study’s findings, published in Pediatrics on 25 May, reinforced the argument that coloured overlays and lenses are unlikely to help with reading difficulties in children with dyslexia. Around 375 000 UK children have dyslexia, and the use of coloured overlays and lenses by such children is common in educational establishments. Parents can spend hundreds of pounds on them, but their effectiveness remains uncertain

Learning to speak is one of life’s most important accomplishments. Language, usually acquired so effortlessly, underpins every child’s learning and ability to interact with others and to establish relationships.

The aim of this clinical review is to summarise the current information on language and speech impairments to help general practitioners, universal well child services, and paediatricians to identify the most common problems, understand their clinical course, decide when to refer and for what services, and understand what improvements can be expected.